Process for making steel



J. HUNDLEY.

PROCESS FOR MAKING STEEL. APPLICATION man JULY 23,1919.

1,394,172. Patented Oct. 18, 1921.

@TTQE/VEY PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES HUNDLEY, OF COLUMBUS, OHIO.

PROCESS FOR MAKING STEEL.

Application filed July 23,

To aZZ 'wlwm it may concern Be it known that I, JAMES HUNDLEY, a

citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of Columbus, county of Franklin, and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Process for Making Steel, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in methods for the manufacture of steel from iron or to the method of making alloy steels from ordinary carbon steel and has for its principal object, the making of steel from iron or alloy steels from steel or iron with out the necessity of melting or fluxing the iron or steel to be so treated. A further object is to manufacture steel or alloy steel from scrap or junk steel or iron or from commercial bar iron or steel of any size or shape without reducing the same to a molten form. A further object is to convert bar or slab iron into steel or alloy steel in a continuous manner rather than in fixed charges or predetermined quantities as is customary in the Bessemer or open-hearth processes. A further object is to so produce steel as to lessen its cost of manufacture, hasten the process of manufacture and to eliminate the necessity of blooming and subsequently reworking the steel so manufactured.

With these and other objects in View, my

improved process of manufacture and my method of accomplishing the same, will be best understood by reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate preferred forms of the furnace for this process of manufacture, like numerals referring to like parts throughout, it being understood that such modifications and deviations therefrom may be made as may be necessar or as come within the spirit of the appende claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of the furnace through its longi-. tudinal dimension. Fig; 2is a similar elevation through a modified form of the furnace while Fig. 3 shows a similar view ofa still further modification, a single view. only of each type of furnace being shown. I,

In the drawings the numeral 4 indicates the furnace in general, 5 being a combustion chamber provided with any form of grates or fire box 6. 7 indicates the heating chamber supplied with baflie walls 8 for proper direction of the heating gases or flames, 9 being the rear furnace wall and 10 the flue or stack. Within the furnace chamber 7 Specification of Letters Patent.

'the opening 34:.

Patented Oct. is, 1921 1919. Serial No. 312,748.

placed an endless conveyer 12, composed of sections or elements 13, hingedly connected as at 141 and carried by and driven from sheaves 15 carried on shafts or airles 16. A second conveyer 17 is positioned adjacent the inner extremity of conveyer 12 to receive.

material discharged from conveyer 12 and tocarry said material without said furnace, said conveyer being supported by bafiie walls 20 and 25 through axles l9'and'lsheaves 18.

An opening 11 is provided through the rear wall 9, through which conveyer 12 may pro]ect, as at 30, or through which iron may be positioned upon said conveyer by means of a plate 22, opening 11 being protected by a balile 23 which may be hinged, as at 24, if so desired, any cinder-0r slag from said heating process being collected in a chamber 21 from which it may be removed by any means desired. Suitably positioned with reference to conveyer 17 is a suitable duct or passage 26 provided with distributing openings 27 to distribute carbon or other alloy elements upon the heated metal 29 after same has been heated nearly to the. fusing point while passing, as at 28, through the heating chamber 7. e

In a modified form, the duct 26 may be replaced by any other suitable means, as by a hose or blast pipe (not shown) inserted through an opening 34 in one of the side walls of the furnace, the pipe being pro tected, if desired, by a baffle plate 31. The transverse conveyer 17 may also be replaced by a longitudinal conveyer 35 delivering the heated metal and the carbon or allow metal distributed thereupon, through openings 36 in the front of the furnace, said conveyer being composed of sections or elements 32 hingedly connected as at 33. r

In operation, the iron or low grade steel to be treated is placed upon conveyer 12 where it is carried, through opening 11 into the heating chamber 7 where it is brought to practically fusing heat. It is thenl'automatically discharged upon conveyer 17 (or 35) where the required quantity of carbon or other alloy elements, as tungsten,molybdenum, nickel, etc., is precipitated over and upon the heated metal through ducts 26 or The steel is then carried without the furnace-by said conveyers and reduced to a homogeneous mass by being acted upon' by a hammer. or forge or by rolls, or it may be carried either before or after such hammer action, to soaking pits to alloysteel, withoutthe necessity of liqui-V without the furnace, if desired. It will thus be seen that I convert iron to steel, or 'steel fying or melting the metal and without the necessity of casting-the molten metal into blooms and subsequently reworking the blooms into bars, slabs, or other desired form.- The heated metal will readily as-,

similate and unite with the carbon or alloys while in its essentially fused form and this assimilation and uniform amalgamation of such element with said steel is further increased and completed by the action of the hammer or rolls or in a reheating'furnace. It will also be seen that the process is much more direct and rapid, is less expensive, and is moreflexible than the present Bessemer or open-hearth process and greatly simplifies the subsequent working or shaping of the steel after its conversion.

A further modification and advantage of this process lies in the fact that carbon or other elements may be sprinkled upon or interspersed through the iron or steel as it is being placed upon the conveyor before'it enters the heating chamber and be carried through the heating chamber with said iron, becoming gradually incorporated into and fused with said iron as the latter becomes heated in its passage through said heating chamber. This is especially advantageous where said iron is placed upon said conveyer in large quantities or piles at one time, and more especially, where these quantities or piles are'composed of relatively small or 1 thin pieces or sheets of scrap iron .or steel.

It may alsorbe found advantageous to thus intersperse the carbon with the iron as it is being placed in its cold form upon said conveyer and then further adding other desired elements or alloys to said combinations after the said combination has become heated or fused within said furnace as heretofore described.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new is 1. As a new process of manufacture, the process of'making steel from iron, or alloy steel from iron or steel, by precipitating upon said iron or steel, while in heated condition, carbonizing elements and incorporating said carbonizing elements with said other metal while in said heated condition and further unifying said product by working with a hammer or rolls.

2. As a new process of manufacture,'the process of making steel from iron, or alloy steel from iron or steel, by heating said iron or steel within a furnace and precipitating upon said heated metal a carbonizing heated metal, predetermined quantities of the carbonizing alloy, automatically discharging said heated combination from said furnace, and, further unifying and reducing said product after said removal by mechanicallyre-working it.

4. As a new process for making steel from iron, the method of placing said iron in piles, interspersing through said piles, predetermined quantities of pulverized carbon,

conveying said treated piles continuously through the heating chamber of a furnace, heating said piles essentially to the fusing point,. incorporatingsaid carbon with and into said piles of iron, converting same into steel bysuch incorporation, removing said combination from said furnace in said heated condition, and further mixing, combining and umf ing said product by re-work ing same mec anically, and by subsequently re-heating the mass, essentially as described.

5. As a new process of making steel, the manufacture of alloy steel from iron or steel by heating said iron or's'teel, essentially to the fusing point, as it is carried continuously through the heating chamber of a furnace, precipitating upon and incorporating with said heated metal, predetermined quantities of a carboniaing element, removing said combination from said furnace, and re-working said combination while in said essentially fused condition, without liquefying the said elements, and without casting sald combination into blooms, essentially as and for the purpose described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of a subscribing witness.

JAMES HUNDLEY.

Witness LETA L. Dann 

